Should people be held more accountable for bank fees? Or are the banks just getting over?

Question

I know that banks charge big fees & such for bounced checks, overdraft fees, paying the largest check 1st & bounce the other 3, some even charge per week for being overdrawn. But when do we turn to ourselves & say "I have a lot of control over the fees I am charged". If you have $50 in account, write 4 checks for $100 each & get mad we got $30 fees X 4?

I work for a credit union & make no excuse for kicking someone when down! But come on! There are errors on the banks & publics side but Im talking about the regular everyday stuff. People who overdraft 10-15X/month, live off the o/d loans, use other ATMs 2X/day & get fee of $4 to get $20!

And I know that $30 is a high fee for o/d by $2. But it is called a penalty for a reason! It is to discourage the use of. Do you think it really costs a city $30 b/c you didnt put a dime in the meter? No, its to teach a lesson for next time to be careful. Just like credit cards, folks complain about late & over limit & still charge any way!

I brought this topic up because I was reading an article on MSNBC about fees charged for small purchases.

Why blame the bank b/c you dont keep track of spending? Or just dont care? What about personal accountability? I am as much a consumer advocate as the next guy, but are we not to share in the blame for this? If we stopped making it so profitable for banks because we dont write down we went to the store, there would be no fees!

Again, I know that we all make mistakes, I have done it myself. Cant we accept our mistakes as that & move on? Why must the blame go to the deep pockets because we cant add & subtract?

Answer 1

In Malaysia if you write 3 bad checks you can't write checks for 6 months. All banking has to be done at the bank in a special line that's VERY long. After that if you again write 3 bad checks you can never again have a checking account. Obviously this doesn't happen often. The reason people write bad checks is because they are allowed to. The bank isenabling this behavior, people can only write 10 plus a month if the bank honors them. On the other hand, if the bank honors them the bank makes more money, so I don' expect the banks to change their policies any time soon. So yes the big problem is people being idiots with their finances, and not even making a solid effort to budget, and it's not the banks responsibility to control peoples budgets, but you can't tell someone it's O.K. to do something and then get upset when they do it.